Shadowing Practice: Robert Downey Jr's Speech Will Leave You SPEECHLESS — Best Life Advice - Learn English Speaking with Video
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117 sentences
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Is the door to Iron Man totally closed?
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Because I don't believe it is.
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Every day, the reset button, the space bar gets pressed, and it's like, now what?
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30 years, he has struggled with a dangerous drug addiction that nearly destroyed him.
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And today, he says he's clean, he's in love.
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And so by the time you're in prison, that's not rock bottom for you?
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Nope.
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It's easy to embrace hopelessness when things seem insurmountable.
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And yet, it's actually just a matter of time until all of the elements come together for things to be all right.
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I mean, I believe that, you know, most difficult situations will resolve themselves if you are persistent and if you don't give up entirely.
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And that's what I never did.
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I never gave up.
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Do you still get urges to do drugs?
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I have not even an inkling of a desire.
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It's not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems.
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What's hard is to decide. that thing
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that you're wearing around your neck yes being as you are
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obviously known as being iron man are you concerned with wearing
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a large thing in the exact same spot life is funny
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because i was doing this before i ever got fitted for the rt
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so it was more of uh art imitating oddball stuff i was doing anyway even more interesting
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because maybe you were born to be iron man
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because iron man obviously had that loosely pre -arranged destiny
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and what's incredible is how far afield you can go from it
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and still find your way back this concept of things just
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sort of falling into place i'm a big believer in that too what is that though is that you
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getting out of your own way isn't
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that 70 of it yeah yeah i'd say it's 70 maintenance
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of what can i do to do my part to stay out of the way
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and then the other part i always think of it as like this little super thin invisible thread
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but you can feel the tug
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and you just kind of you have to be really gentle you have to pause
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when agitated and you have to go for it
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when you're gonna like there's four walls in here
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which one has the map behind it you it's that one
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and you knock down the wall and it's there you know yeah what is
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that though that's a synchronicity yeah uh intuition
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i don't know right it's the big i don't know
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and i really feel it's so funny at this point in my life
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and being you know kind of middle -aged and all
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that well i know i'm going to fly around the world i'm going to sell some soap
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and i know i have a new project
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and i know i've just retired my jersey on this 12 -year journey i've been on
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and uh and how do i want to start
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and it came up how would you like to go yes
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that's exactly what i'm going to do i'm going to go have the joe rogan experience
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and kick off this year and this season
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and this new chapter by doing what i love i think part of the reason i'm still
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so interested not just in life
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but also you know getting to do what i do is
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i'm a fan i love movies i love creativity i love music i love i love culture
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and the fact that i actually have a place in it
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while i'm observing it and digging it is like it's it's
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it's an honor even though he has a whole lot of
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money even though he's iron man dude here's the deal he's still nice my daughter is four years old
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and she says daddy don't you know iron man can't you
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hook it up it's my birthday can he come to my birthday can you make it happen daddy
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and this is at his height this is when it's everything is going
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and i text him
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and i said listen man uh my daughter you know she loves iron man
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if you got time you know i'm saying you know
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if you'd stop by
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and this is the day before her birth this saturday sunday
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is is the birthday he texts back he said is 12
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o 'clock noon good is the door to iron man totally closed
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because i don't believe it is oh you guys can go through time now let me ask you the question
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if i pick the jersey back up
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and put it on wouldn't you feel a little bit like
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oh no crap no oh i i love you as iron man
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so i would i would if you if they opened up this time machine
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and you popped out i just imagine the moment where everybody
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goes crazy it would be amazing it'd be great i would love
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that but i also love you hanging it up it's just i keep thinking see clearly
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and it's difficult because i i feel like we all just get buffeted by feelings
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and ego or fears or little you know chips of resentments
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or intuitions that are tied to something maybe higher
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but you think is out of your reach or whatever
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so i need to be kept uh right -sized because i can easily fall into
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Self -seeking and depression and self -pity and judgment and all that stuff.
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It's kind of a, it's a bit of a default, but I spend enough energy and I've had enough.
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help over enough years to actually just say oh that's that's
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just awful destructive behavior you're entertaining in your head you know
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if i'm noticing anything now it's that we need to shift
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and we need new challenges and just like society
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and politics things are moving and morphing and the information age is making things
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so everything's learning and growing from everything so quickly and improving or disproving.
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But for me, it's just incredible.
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Our culture never encourages taking a break, never encourages saying, don't chase that thing because you've got it in your hands.
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So confidence, you know, there's been times when I felt I'm in possession of it.
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And then you want to let go a little bit
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because it's only ever the moment and life guiding you the wind is
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so at your back
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that you're like wow are you just are you just you know jumping over the waves
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and all that by yourself and you're like you bet i am
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but there's a physics to the moment and the winds at your back
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and then the wind does what the fucking wind does
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and it changes and if you're left there thinking what you know
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so i think it's great to be in full possession of what you would call supreme confidence
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and then see what happens if you don't hold on to it so hard because it's great, but it is a bit of an illusion because like everything else, it's always changing.
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Always know what your action is because then
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when you come in in the morning confident or
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when you come in in the morning and you can't hit your ass with both hands, you know what to do.
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Just boil down what it is you're doing, whether there's a camera around or just what am I doing today?
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Today, I'm showing up and I'm trying to be honest
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and also to listen and learn but really my action today is I'm beginning a process of promotion.
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You actually take comfort in the fact that your eyesight is starting to dwindle?
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You want to chase it
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but what I appreciate is you know where you're at by what you're able to retain
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if you fight for it and the things that are going no matter what you do.
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Sometimes it's about I don't need to try to use something to hold on to everything.
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I want to pick the five or seven things
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that I definitely want to hold on to
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and I want to watch the rest of it go in and out with the tides.
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Smile, though your heart is aching.
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Smile, even though it's breaking.
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When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Robert Downey Jr's Speech Will Leave You SPEECHLESS — Best Life Advice”. This video has 117 sentences and 1391 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:53. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| chase verb | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | To follow at speed. |
| possession noun | /pəˈzɛʃn̩/ | A control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights. |
| daddy noun | /ˈdædi/ | Also used as a term of address: a father; one's father. |
| intuition noun | /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/ | Immediate cognition without the use of conscious rational processes. |
| thin adjective | /ˈθɪn/ | Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite. |
| awful adjective | /ˈɔːfʊl/ | Very bad. |
| cloud noun | /ˈklaʊ̯d/ | A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| thread noun | /ˈθɹɛd/ | A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework. |
| clock noun | /klɑk/ | A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day. |
| comfort noun | /ˈkʌm.fət/ | Contentment, ease. |
| promotion noun | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | An advancement in rank or position. |
| physics noun | /ˈfɪz.ɪks/ | The branch of science concerned with the study of the properties and interactions of space, time, matter and energy. |
| hook noun | /hʊk/ | A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| back up verb | To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so. |
| boil down verb | To reduce in volume by boiling. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| kick off verb | To make the first kick in a game or part of a game. |
| knock down verb | To hit or knock (something or someone), intentionally or accidentally, so that it falls. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has struggled · i've just retired · I've had |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were born · be kept |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 46 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, thread /ˈθɹɛd/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, addiction /əˈdɪkˌʃən/, illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like encourage, chase, possession.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.